Agriculture is a driving force in making the world turn round. Unfortunately it is ranked as one of the top three most dangerous professions in the United States. Agriculture safety has been becoming more important in recent years with new opportunities for people to learn how to keep our farmers safe, and that is just what the Kentucky Department of Agriculture Safety Administrator, Dale Dobson and Dr. Cheryl Dean-Whitt. PHD are doing.
Murray State University offers an Agriculture Safety class for all students studying agriculture. Dale Dobson and Dr. Cheryl Dean-Witt recently visited the class to talk about keeping our farmers safe, physically and mentally.
Dr. Cheryl Dean-Witt is a nurse who promotes safety and health specifically within farmers. She has been traveling with Dobson to help others understand how the stressors of farming can affect farmers negatively. There are many stressors of farming including labor cost and availability, increasing operation cost, and government regulations. Dean-Witt provides farmers with many tips to help minimize or relieve stress. She explained how not every farmer can or will follow all of these tips, but it’s best to find the one that best fits their lifestyle. Here is what she suggested:
-Think positive and surround yourself with positive people
– Accept you cannot control every situation
-Eat a balanced diet and avoid alcohol, tobacco, and drugs
-Rely on your Faith or talk to someone you trust
-Get off the farm and do something you love
-Be HONEST with yourself
Dale Dobson is a farmer, firefighter, and EMT. He holds the Safety Administrator position at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Dobson has been holding farm safety demonstrations since 1994 when he had his first demonstration on his farm. He created the Farm Rescue team to host shows and demonstrations all over the state. The mission of Farm Rescue is to save lives so everyone goes home when the day is over. They recreate a variety of scenarios like tractor rollovers and grain bin rescues, to ensure farmers are educated on how to be safe and how to proceed in an emergency.
Dobson also started the Challenge Coin Program. Each coin has the message, “You are Appreciated” on one side. It also includes the number for the suicide prevention hotline, 988. The purpose of this coin is to be passed out to farmers and other agriculture employees so they know they are appreciated and are important in this world. There have been roughly 2,900 coins passed out across Kentucky and neighboring states. People are invited to take part in the challenge to pass out coins to people they want to feel appreciated.
Resources are available if you or someone you know is struggling.
Suicide Prevention Hotline – 988
AgriStress Helpline – 833-897-2474
